The present invention relates to coin holders used in the collection, preservation and appreciation of rare or defective coins, the coins being mounted such that either one or both sides may be viewed. In particular, the present invention relates to a durable coin holding tool which allows for the arrangement and preservation of collected coins, with a slidabley attached magnifying lense to enable a viewer to distinguish subtle differences among individually housed coins.
Four general types of coin holders known in pertinent art. Among these are single coin holders made from folded cardboard-type material having transparent sides, with coins disposed therebetween. Difficulty loading and unloading these coin holders distinguishes them from the present invention.
Also known are flat, capped containers which can be opened or closed freely. Such conventional coin holders are made from hard synthetic resins, and include cushioning materials disposed at their bottoms for receiving coins. U.S. Pat. No. 3,957,157 discloses this type of coin holder, having the drawback that when coins are put into or removed from it, the coins may be touched by a user's fingers, leaving finger prints on the surfaces of the coins. The present invention addresses and overcomes this problem of the prior art.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,998,126 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,592,465 disclose coin holders for commemorative coins having inner based boards with holes having diameters related directly to the diameters of the displayed coins and transparent covers. In these patents, first and second transparent sides are attached to at least one plastic (polyethylene or cellophane) base board to form a sandwiched structure which is then permanently fixed at the corners.
The present invention differs from these two holders for commemorative coins. Conventional coin holders such as these are designed to collect and preserve only coins having fixed sizes. These coin holders for commemorative coins cannot be used to collect and preserve coins having sizes which differ from the sizing of the holes in the inner base boards.
The fourth general type of coin holder combines a plurality of the single coin holders mentioned above into album form, with one of various types of holding frames. U.S. Pat. No. 3,554,625 discloses such a display device, having at least four holding frames for housing a plurality of single coin holders. Numerous problems exist with these conventional coin holders which are addressed and solved by the present invention.
Durability is a longstanding problem among conventional coin holders. For example, when the aforementioned single coin holders are made (for example) from transparent pockets consisting essentially of synthetic resins, the pockets often yield to minor mechanical stresses and break after sustained periods of usage. Further, during periods of increased barometric pressure, heat and humidity the materials of the pockets often soften. This causes the openings of the pockets to stick, and increases the difficulty of putting in and removing coins.
In cases where single coin holders are placed in holding frames, the holding frames may break and become useless after extended usage. Furthermore, in order to distinguish the subtle, valuable portions of the ancient or defective coins using known coin holders, it is necessary to use a separately prepared magnifier while viewing the displayed coins.